Hitman 3 Freelancer is a roguelike-inspired mode with new campaigns and a customizable safehouse

Hitman 3
(Image credit: IO Interactive)

Hitman 3 Freelancer is a new, roguelike-inspired mode coming to the assassination game this spring, adding a new safehouse and limited resources to agent 47's usual order of business.

Freelancer was the biggest announcement from IO Interactive's Hitman 3 Year 2 reveal event, which also covered other new features coming this year including a new map, and both VR and ray tracing support for PC players. According to the announcement, Freelancer will let players choose from a set of campaigns, each against its own criminal enterprise. 47 will be able to eliminate key members of the organizations on a selection of maps from all across the Hitman trilogy, finally tracking down its leader to whatever map you leave for last.

So far, so Hitman. But the big difference in Freelancer is that 47 doesn't have the backing of the ICA. Instead, you'll plan out each hit from your customizable safehouse, selecting just the right attire and gear for the hit at hand. Whatever equipment you bring will be lost for good if you're taken out (or if you stash it in a garbage can ahead of a checkpoint and forget to pick it back up), but black market suppliers located in the missions themselves will also be happy to restock you for a price.

Other new NPCs hanging out in missions will make your life harder, whether by guarding your targets or alerting them so they begin to flee after suspicious activity - you'll even find some other assassins out on the job (and they probably won't be very happy to see you).

IO Interactive says Freelancer mode is in the final stages of development now, and if it's piqued your interest, you have a few new ways to catch up before then: Hitman Trilogy Collection, which includes the missions from all three games playable in the upgraded Hitman 3 experience, is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S on January 20 - that's also when it will debut on Steam, and as part of the selection of bundled-in games for Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass subscribers.

Find even more to get excited about this year with our guide to new games 2022.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

Read more
Peforming melee combat in a hallway whie wearing a hazmat suit while playing the 2016 Hitman DLC mission Patient Zero in Hitman 3.
7 years on, Agent 47’s attempt to contain a deadly virus in Patient Zero brings the classic Hitman stealth action to an unmatched fever pitch
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Infinity: Everything you need to know about the Animus Hub
Killing Floor 3 screenshots of a member of NIghtfall wearing a gas mask next to images of burning foes that surround the Big in 2025 logo
Killing Floor 3 is bringing us gloriously gory co-op FPS action in 2025, and Tripwire says it's "at its best when you are just barely surviving"
FBC Firebreak hero image for Big in 2025
After Alan Wake 2 and Control, FBC: Firebreak represents a bold new frontier for Remedy: "It's time to expand the Remedy Connected Universe into shared spaces and brave something new"
Screenshots of stealth in Thick as Thieves
"Stealth is the engine that makes this": Thick as Thieves is putting a multiplayer spin on everything we love about immersive sims
Killing Floor 3 screenshot showing a new ZED with a terrifying body augmentation
Killing Floor 3: Everything we know so far
Latest in Hitman
Hitman 3 key art for deluxe edition featuring Agent 47 on red background
Agent 47 has had the same actor for 25 years, and he says he's a "very, very close friend" of Hitman
Hitman's next episode looks lovely - too bad about all the murder & bio-weapons
Hitman episode 2 trailer takes you on a tour of scenic, secretive Sapienza
How one level of Hitman lasts longer than most games
Hitman 3
The next Hitman game is "a little bit on hiatus" as the devs work on James Bond
Hitman Freelancer safes
How to crack Hitman Freelancer safes
Latest in News
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
5 years after starting development, Neil Druckmann says Naughty Dog's new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "still evolving and changing as we're making it"
Silent Hill f
After 2 years of silence, the next mainline Silent Hill game is getting a dedicated stream this week with "the latest news"
Original Xbox console
Former Microsoft exec says the first Xbox was killed early in favor of 360 because it was "losing money left right and center," but luckily "we could afford to hemorrhage cash"
A Monster Hunter Wilds character holding binoculars.
Despite Monster Hunter Wilds suffering monstrous performance problems on PC, it still outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in the US
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann says Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will also be about "being lonely," as if his zombie apocalypse wasn’t isolating enough: "I really want you to be lost"
A screenshot of Jordan drinking a soda during the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Hertic Prophet.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2